Jim Bolger
James Brendan Bolger is a New Zealand politician of the National Party who was the 35th Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving from 1990 to 1997.
Bolger was born to an Irish immigrant family in Opunake, Taranaki. Before entering politics, he farmed in the Waikato area and was involved in Federated Farmers, a nationwide agricultural association. Bolger won election to Parliament in 1972, and subsequently served in several portfolios in the Third National Government. Following one unsuccessful bid for the party leadership in 1984, Bolger was elected as National Party leader in 1986. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 1986 to 1990.
Bolger led the National Party to a landslide victory—the largest in its history—in the, allowing him to become Prime Minister on 2 November 1990. The Fourth National Government was elected on the promise of delivering a "Decent Society" following the previous Labour government's economic reforms, known as "Rogernomics", which Bolger criticised. However, shortly after taking office, his government was forced to bail out the Bank of New Zealand and as a result reneged on a number of promises made during the election campaign. Bolger's government essentially advanced the free-market reforms of the previous government, while implementing drastic cuts in public spending. National retained power in the 1993 election, albeit with a much-reduced majority.
Bolger's second term in office saw the introduction of the MMP electoral system. In the subsequent 1996 election National emerged as the largest party but it was forced to enter into a coalition with New Zealand First. Bolger continued as Prime Minister, however his critics argued that he gave the inexperienced NZ First too much influence in his Cabinet. On 8 December 1997, Bolger was effectively ousted as leader by his party caucus, and was replaced as Prime Minister by Jenny Shipley.
After resigning as a Member of Parliament in 1998, Bolger became Ambassador to the United States and remained in this post until 2002.
Early life
Bolger was born in 1935 in Opunake in Taranaki. He was born into an Irish Catholic family; Bolger was one of five children born to Daniel and Cecilia Bolger who emigrated together from Gorey, County Wexford, in 1930. He left Opunake High School at age 15 to work on the family dairy farm.In 1963 he married Joan Riddell, and they moved to their own sheep and beef farm in Te Kuiti two years later. During this time Bolger became involved in local farmer politics. In the late 1960s he was asked to accompany the then Minister of Finance Robert Muldoon to see for himself the difficulties faced by farmers in the area. As Bolger travelled around the district, he became experienced with Muldoon's adversarial style.
Political career
Member of Parliament
Bolger entered politics in 1972 as the New Zealand National Party Member of Parliament for King Country, a newly created electorate in the rural western portion of North Island. This electorate is traditional National territory, and Bolger won easily. He represented this electorate, renamed Taranaki-King Country in 1996, until his retirement in 1998. In 1977 he was made a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, first as New Zealand's Minister of Fisheries and Associate Minister of Agriculture, later as Minister of Labour and Minister of Immigration following the 1978 election.After the defeat of National at the 1984 general elections, Bolger and deputy leader Jim McLay challenged Muldoon for the leadership of the party. McLay succeeded and named Bolger as deputy leader. However, in 1986 Bolger successfully challenged McLay's leadership. Initially Bolger pursued a pro law and order approach, with a focus on critiquing Labour's perceived reluctance to combat "lawlessness" and offering a referendum on the reintroduction of capital punishment. Following an unsuccessful election in 1987, National under Bolger capitalised on public anger at the Labour government's highly unpopular economic policies to win National's biggest ever majority at the 1990. As a result, Bolger became Prime Minister at the age of 55.
Prime Minister
First term
Three days after being sworn in as Prime Minister, Bolger's government needed to bail out the Bank of New Zealand, then the largest bank in the country. The cost of the bail out was $380 million, but after rewriting its budget, the government needed to borrow $740 million. This had an immediate impact on Bolger's direction in government, with the first budget of his premiership being dubbed the "Mother of All Budgets". Bolger's Finance Minister, Ruth Richardson, implemented drastic cuts in public spending, particularly in health and welfare. The unemployment benefit was cut by $14.00 a week, sickness benefit by $27.04, families benefit by $25.00 to $27.00 and universal payments for family benefits were completely abolished. Richardson also introduced many user pays requirements in hospitals and schools, services previously free to the populace and paid for by the government. The first budget specifically reversed National's election promise to remove the tax surcharge on superannuation and the retention of promises to abolish tertiary fees.Another major controversial piece of legislation was the 1991 Employment Contracts Act which effectively dismantled the industrial relations settlement that had remained in place since 1894, abolishing nation-wide industry awards. The immediate effects were felt with union membership falling dramatically in the immediate years following its adoption. His government also introduced the Building Act 1991, which is seen by some as the most crucial factor leading to the leaky homes crisis in the decade following its introduction.
Bolger opposed electoral reform, but despite his party's opposition held a referendum on whether or not New Zealand should change from the British-style electoral system of 'first past the post' to one of proportional representation. In 1992, New Zealanders voted to change to the Mixed Member Proportional system. This was confirmed in a binding referendum held at the same time as the 1993 general election, which National won. Bolger had originally proposed a return to a bicameral system, with a Senate elected by Single Transferable Vote, but this proposal was dropped in the face of support for electoral reform.
Second term
At the 1993 election, National was narrowly able to retain government owing partly to a slight economic recovery and the opposition being split between three competing parties; Bolger himself expected a comfortable election win, exclaiming "bugger the pollsters" upon the election result. National's unprecedented eighteen-seat majority had virtually disappeared and the country faced an election night hung parliament for the first time since 1931, with National one seat short of the required 50 seats to govern. Final special votes counted over the following days revealed National had won, allowing it to form a government with the majority of one seat but required the election of a Speaker from the opposition benches to hold a working majority in the House.Following this election result Bolger expressed the need to work with other political parties and decided to demote Richardson from her post, appointing Bill Birch who was seen as more moderate. During Birch's tenure, spending on core areas such as health and education increased. His government passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act 1994. During the 1994 Address-in-Reply debate, Bolger argued in favour of a New Zealand republic, Bolger denied that his views related to his Irish heritage.
In April 1995 the Cave Creek disaster gained public attention after a scenic viewing platform collapsed, killing fourteen people. The platform had been erected by the Department of Conservation in 1994 and later inquiries found that many of those who constructed it did not have prerequisite qualifications for building the platform. Despite DOC taking responsibility for its collapse, there would be no prosecutions but $2.6 million worth of compensation was paid to the victims' families. Bolger initially attacked the report produced by the Commission of Inquiry, arguing that the platform failed "essentially because it lacked about $20 worth of bolts to hold it together". The Minister of Conservation, Denis Marshall, was criticised in the media for his management of the Department. Many people blamed Marshall, although there was also wide criticism of the whole government's policies on management of the conservation estate. Marshall eventually resigned in May 1996, just over a year after the accident occurred. A new Minister, Nick Smith, was appointed, and a full review of the Department was conducted by the State Services Commission.
Proposals to end the status of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the country's highest court of appeal failed to gain parliamentary sanction during Bolger's premiership. Bolger's government ended the awarding of British honours in 1996, introducing a New Zealand Honours System. At a conference on the "Bolger years" in 2007, Bolger recalled speaking to the Queen about the issue of New Zealand becoming a republic: "I have more than once spoken with Her Majesty about my view that New Zealand would at some point elect its own Head of State, we discussed the matter in a most sensible way and she was in no way surprised or alarmed and neither did she cut my head off." With the new MMP environment some National Party MPs defected to a new grouping, United New Zealand in mid-1995, whilst other splinter parties emerged.
Third term
The 1996 election saw the New Zealand First Party, led by Winston Peters, holding the balance of power after the 1996 election. Bolger's government stayed in office in a caretaker role while negotiations began for a coalition government. Although National remained the largest single party, neither Bolger nor Labour leader Helen Clark could form a government on their own. The balance of power in the new House rested with New Zealand First, a party that had only been formed three years earlier. Its leader, Winston Peters, had left the National Party to form his own party, opposing many of the free-market policies implemented by National and Labour before it. Ultimately, in December 1996, Peters decided to go into coalition with National. Bolger had to pay a very high price in order to stay in power, however. As part of a detailed coalition agreement Peters became Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer. Although Bolger had previously sacked Peters from a National cabinet the two initially seemed to work well together.Resignation
Growing opposition to Bolger's slow pace and perceived exaggerated influence of New Zealand First led Transport Minister Jenny Shipley to stage a caucus room coup in 1997. Bolger was out of the country at the time, and when he returned he found that he did not have enough support in his caucus to remain as party leader and prime minister. Rather than face being voted out, he resigned on 8 December, and Shipley became New Zealand's first woman prime minister. As a concession, Bolger was made a junior minister in Shipley's government.Bolger remains National's second-longest-serving leader. Retiring politician journalist Peter Luke said that Bolger was "he most under-estimated prime minister I have come across. He made up for his lack of education by having an innate ability to relate to the aspirations of ordinary Kiwis. And, as many civil servants discovered to their cost, his image of being a simple King Country farmer did not mean that he would not understand their reports and unfailingly point to the flaws in them."
Life after politics
Bolger retired as MP for Taranaki-King Country in 1998, prompting the and subsequently became New Zealand's Ambassador to the United States. On his return to New Zealand in 2001, he was appointed Chairman of the state-owned New Zealand Post and of its subsidiary Kiwibank. He also chairs Express Couriers Ltd, Trustees Executors Ltd, the Gas Industry Company Ltd, the Advisory Board of the World Agricultural Forum, St. Louis, USA, the New Zealand United States Council, and the Board of Directors of the Ian Axford Fellowships in Public Policy.Bolger was elected Chancellor of the University of Waikato on 14 February 2007, succeeding John Jackman.
On 1 July 2008, almost 15 years after his National government sold New Zealand Rail Ltd, the Labour-led government repurchased its successor Toll NZ Ltd, having repurchased the track network in 2004. Bolger became chair of the company, renamed KiwiRail, a position he held until 1 July 2010. A number of commentators, including Winston Peters, view this as ironic. In response, Bolger acknowledged his involvement in privatising New Zealand Rail, remarking that "my life is full of ironies," and added that "the world has changed."
On 5 June 2018 Bolger was announced as the head of a government working group, tasked with reporting back on the design of Fair Pay Agreements by the end of the year.
Honours and awards
In 1977, Bolger was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal. Both Jim and Joan Bolger received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and, in 1993, the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. In the 1998 New Year Honours, Jim Bolger was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, and Joan Bolger was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the community.Personal life
Bolger and his wife Joan are Roman Catholics. The couple has nine children. Bolger voted anti-abortion whenever the issue came up in a parliamentary conscience vote. He is a member of Collegium International.Some have made reference to Jim Bolger, ironically or affectionately, as the Great Helmsman.